Benchmarks: Civilization V, Dragon Age II

Civilization fans hoping to play the latest installment with DX11 visuals will be please to find that the medium settings are not taxing at all. The GTX 550 Ti raced to the top of the chart with 87fps, ahead of the HD 6970's 78fps. The GTX 460 and 6770 also comfortably broke the 70fps barrier.

Even the HD 6750 managed to score 60fps at 1680x1050, while the GeForce GTS 450 and HD 6670 earned 58fps and 51fps -- very playable for a slow-paced game like Civilization. Interestingly, the rebadged HD 6670 was about 7fps faster than the older HD 5670 on average.

When maxed out, Dragon Age II is pretty demanding, but it tames down quite a bit when on medium. At 1680x1050, the Radeon HD 6790 claimed a momentary taste of supremacy with 92fps. The HD 6770 followed with 84fps, a notch ahead of the GTX 460 and GTX 550 Ti.

Performance dipped to 70fps with the HD 6750 and then to 63fps with the GTX 450, steadily decreasing by a few fps until we reached the GT 430 with 35fps -- 14fps below the 5570. Unsurprisingly, HD 6450 and GT 520 reminded us again they are unfit for gaming.